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Family:

Child:

Henry Prewitt

M, #110412, b. circa 1654, d. before June 1722

Last Edited: 8 Oct 2005

Biography*: Note, Source: Ragan Pruitt - Henry is believed to be the son of Thomas Prewitt. Listed with heads of families in Henrico County, VA. Tithed to support an army of defense against savages. Neighbor of Col. William Byrd in 1679.

When James Crowley died in 1828 and was buried in the family plot in South DeKalb County,no one knew that R. H. Macy &Co. would one day need that area for a parking lot But when the land was sold for Columbia Mall in 1965 the family took the "rest in peace"seriously. "Most people connected with it did not favor moving the bodies, said Mrs. Margaret Crowley,75. There is a sentiment about that," she added. "They had been buried there for a great numberof years and there was a feeling they had a right to remain." So when the Crowley heirs gave Macy's a quit-claim deed to the acre they owned, they gotin return a legal commitment from the company that the cemetery would be preserved and keptup, said J. H. Crowley of Buford who negotiated the sale for the family. The same requirementwould be passed on to anyone who might buy the land from Macy's, Crowley said. So James Crowley, pioneer, apparently,--for his grave is no longer marked -- still lies undis-turbed, above the mall parking lot behind high granite walls and a locked gate. The rectangular plot rises about 20 feet above the level of the parking lot near Davison'sdepartment store. There is a neat border of grass at the base and a freshly painted rail aroundthe top of the wall. Inside a wrought-iron gate, stairs lead to the top, where more than a dozen graves lie sur-rounded by a flagstone floor. There is a brass plaque at the entrance that dates the plot to an 1802 land grant from theKing of England, but Mrs. Crowley said she had been told that was in error, and she wanted therecord set straight. Sure enough, Atlanta's historian extraordinaire, Franklin Garrett, whorecorded the cemetery in 1931, confirmed that the English king was not in the land-grantingbusiness at that time. That part of the county was part of a tract ceded by the Creek Indian tribe in 1821, Garrettsaid, and James Crowley was a pioneer in the area. The original Crowley holding, according to family tradition, was the amount of land that thefirst two brothers could ride around on horseback from sunup to sundown. One relative recallsa story that the land once was so cheap that one of the brothers traded 700 acres for stud horse. The rest of the land was sold off through the years, but the family had kept the acre thecemetery was on until it was sold to Macy's. Garrett surmises that the cemetery started with Crowley's death. When Garret rode hisbicycle into the "sylvan sort of setting" in 1931, he recalled that Crowley's grave was markedwith a pile of stones. According to Garrett and some family members, there were more than 14graves in the plot and the unmarked ones were not included.

NOTE by Ragan Pruitt: At one time the land was owned by Vinnie Hudgins (brother of JeffreyClark Hudgins, Sr. and Aunt of Nell Hudgins) and her husband, Redmond Hill, and theyoperated a dairy farm there.--------------------------Note, Source: Ragan Pruitt -

THE ATLANTA JOURNAL About March 25, 1978

OLDEST BURIAL GROUND Hugh Park

REMEMBER, a few weeks ago we wrote about Benjamin C. Crowley, whose family is buriednext to Davison's on Columbia Road, at Memorial Drive? It read: The family cemetery of Benjamin C. Crowley and a number of his descendants, heirs,including the Hudgins and Webb families. Their home was located 100 yards southeast of thisarea. They settled here in 1802. This was a land grant from the King of England." Robert P. Dews of Edison and Franklin Garrett, director of the Atlanta Historical Society,says that DeKalb wasn't settled until 1821. "Let's face it, it would have been pretty dangerousto try and put up a little fort like Standing Peach Tree on the Chattahoochee prior to the date theIndians ceded the land," writes Mr. Dews. Franklin Garrett on Dec. 11, 1931, went out into the distant woods--that is now Davison'sparking lot -- and recorded the inscriptions on the burial stones. "No whites made permanent settlement in this area as early as 1802," he says. "Neitherdid the King of England make any land grants hereabouts. Indeed, the successful culminationiof the American Revolution effectually stopped such former Royal prerogatives." Benjamin Crowley (the one named on the inscription) was born in 1812 and died in 1869.But Mr. Garrett thinks that James Crowley, pioneer of the family in DeKalb County, arrivedprobably in 1822, coming from the older settled Oglethorpe County. He died in 1828, havingemigrated from Ireland where he was of the French-Irish descent. He was the first body laid there. Ben F. Hudgins, 85, whose mother and father and grandmother and grandfather are buriedin a vault about 60 feet wide and 35 high, 100 yards from Davison's, says that was the exactspot where the family was buried. "I talked before a historical society," he said, "and they said it was probably the oldest graveyard around here." A direct descendent of the Crowleys, he said his mother took him as a child to rake and hoe the underbrush in the woods that is now a parking lot. He is a veteran of World War I andserved overseas in the engagement. "When it came to Davison's building a parking lot on the site of the old cemetery -- we hadowned 500 acres --we thought we were entitled to our burying ground. There were slaves buriedthere but they were ploughed up because they had no head stones. It looked bad for Davison's to be so near our dead, so we had the vault built where they were buried. Charles W. Seagraves has one of the seven keys to the barred door that leads to the topof the vault. His great-granddaddy and great-great-grandmother are buried on the top of the25-foot-high monument. Also a descendent of the Crowleys, Mr. Seagraves and wife unlocked the door and went tothe top of the monument that is a square in itself, and found there six rusty old tombstones. Theyare the last remaining of the generations buried there. There were many Georgians, settlers and slaves, that were buried, ashes to ashes, but the six old rusty tombstones are all that remain. "Kids began breaking through the barred door -- it is about five feet high (Ragan Pruitt whocopied this believe this should be "wide") and eight feet tall. I think that Ben F. Hudgins, Mrs.R. T. Hill, Mrs. Mary Allgood have other keys," Mr. Seagraves said. Ben F. Hudgins, when we interviewed earlier, said "somebody prowling around broke thekey in the lock of the burying ground."

Family:

Virginia Barnhill

Family:

Child:

Annie Byrd

F, #110458, b. 14 August 1933, d. 6 September 2009

Annie McKee

Annie McKee, 2004

Annie KcKee, 2004

Last Edited: 25 Sep 2016

Biography*: Annie Byrd McKee September 06, 2009

Annie Byrd McKee, age 76 of Clarkton went home to be with her Lord and Savior Jesus on Sunday, September 6, 2009 at Columbus Regional Medical Center. This beloved mom, grandmother, and friend courageously lived each day to the fullest despite recent health challenges.

Mrs. McKee was born in Bladen County on August 14, 1933 to the late Charles Castle and Virginia Barnhill Byrd. She was the oldest of four siblings.

When Annie was six years old, her mother recognized her musical talent, purchased a piano, and Annie began her first piano lessons. She continued to excel musically through high school. She graduated from Flora MacDonald College earning a Bachelor’s of Music Degree with a minor in Organ and Bible. She also received a Master’s of Music Degree with a concentration in performance at the University of Mississippi. After returning to Bladen County, she married David Baxter “D. B.” McKee in 1958.

Music was always a passion for Annie and she was an accomplished musician. For many years, Annie taught piano lessons as an active participant in the National Guild of Piano Teachers and she directed the Clarkton High School Glee Club. She faithfully served as church organist and Minister of Music at Clarkton Presbyterian Church for over 35 years.

In additional to her music career, Annie also taught in the Bladen County public school system for twenty-three years.

Her service to the community spanned numerous organizations including Delta Kappa Gamma, and both United Daughters of the Confederacy and Daughters of the American Revolution which fostered her love of genealogy.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, D. B. McKee.

She is survived by two daughters; Frances Anne McKee Overby and husband Randall of Raleigh and Gail McKee Marsh and husband Rusty of Clarkton; two brothers, Charles Byrd of Tar Heel and Truman Byrd of Clarkton; one sister, Hilda Byrd Melvin of Elizabethtown; five grandchildren, Megan and Kathryn Overby; Kelly Anne, Billy and Allie Marsh.

The family will receive friends on Thursday, September 10, 2009 from 6:00 until 8:00 pm at Bladen-Gaskins Funeral Home.

Funeral services will be held on Friday, September 11, 2009 at 3:00 pm at Clarkton Presbyterian Church with Rev. Stuart Link officiating. Burial will follow at Bladen Memorial Gardens.

In lieu of flowers memorial may be made to Clarkton Presbyterian Church, 10433 N. College Street, Clarkton, NC 28433.